Two Vital Factors for Faciliting Change
Clarity & Accountability
When organizational change is forthcoming, how do we get our people on board?
“As a leader, it is your responsibility to foster a positive changing environment. Under the right conditions, even the most content or resistant employees can adapt.”
Facilitating organizational change requires that leaders ensure clarity of direction and that purpose is understood. Your team needs to understand how the upcoming change is going to support the vision of the company, how it will make the company more successful, and ultimately how their aligned interests benefit them personally as well.
Clarity is also needed on a tactical level. Employees need to have a tangible plan of how to adapt to the changing circumstances… direction and action steps for making the necessary adjustments. Each individual will have their own challenges and setbacks when learning which behaviors they need to adjust, therefore, having a roadmap for how they are going to reach their goal is critical.
Accountability of commitment to change is an imperative factor. When big changes initially happen, employees will either choose to adapt or choose not to. Some will fear that their success will be hindered and that they will not succeed in a new setting. Others might simply have no interest in moving forward with the company. However, those that are willing to adapt will need some method to make sure they are adapting at a good pace and not being left behind by the rest of the team. It is your job as a leader to set proper pace of priorities. Team members need to know how they win.
Hold everyone on the team accountable for supporting each other. Encourage team members to communicate their successes and struggles with the new environment. Everyone needs to know that they have your support as well as the support of the rest of the team during this transitional period.
“Show me what good performance looks like.” -Ken Blanchard
Change does not have to be complicated or emotional. Making the decisions to change should be the hard part. If leaders provide clarity of vision, expectations of outcome, best practices for achieving results and alignment of interests, change can be an invigorating period for any organization.